Octothorpe

John is at Fantasycon, Alison is wrong, and Liz is right.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

Letters of comment

Chris Garcia (email)

Paul Weimer (email)

Renay! (email)

Roseanna Pendlebury (Bluesky)

Scott Edelman (email)

Simon Bubb (email)

Dismaland & Banksy

We also heard from Heather Rose Jones, Kevin Anderson, Lilian Edwards, Lori Anderson, Shi Lala, and Tero Ykspetäjä.

Fantasycon 2026: Glasgow, UK

British Fantasy Award winners 2026

Worldcon 2027: Montréal, Canada

The WSFS Business Meeting will be virtual

Cory Doctorow and Linda Addison have been added as Toastmaster and Guest of Honour respectively

Code of Conduct and Policies

SFFCONZ statement on CoNZealand 2

Their website has gone dark but the Wayback Machine sees all

Malcolm Edwards has died

Malcolm Edwards on Fancyclopedia

We know there was only one Malcolm Edwards, but there wasn’t a good edit point to take the mistake out!

Picks

John: Hope

Alison: Into the Woods

Liz: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Credits

Cover art: “Cross Stitch” by Roseanna Pendlebury

Alt text: Beautifully cross-stitched depictions of John, Alison and Liz with black, pink and purple Octothorpe T-shirts on. They have a speech bubble above them reading “Octothorpe #171”.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John, Alison and Liz are live from Octocon!

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: It’s a live recording!

The Ultimate Gene Wolfe Library on Humble Bundle

Barry’s Tea and Lyons Tea

Conventions

Octocon: 3–4 October 2026 in Cork, Ireland

Shake, Battle and Roll: 10–11 October 2026 in Southampton, UK

Tyneside Games Expo: 17–18 October 2026 in Gateshead, UK

PictCon 2026: 17 October in Perth, UK

Stabcon 2027: 8–10 January in Stockport, UK

Airecon 2027: 11–14 March (the last one!) in Harrogate, UK

Picks

John: The Waiter by Kwan Ann Tan

The Emma Press

Alison: (is a bit short of a pick)

Liz: CONTROL Resonant

Credits

Cover art: “Live from Octothorpe” by Liz Batty

Alt text: Three crocheted Octos – one purple, one green, and one red – sit against a white background. The words “Octocon 170” appear at the top and “Live from Octothorpe” appear at the bottom. (Octo is the Octocon mascot and is an octopus, so these are made from the official Octo crochet pattern.)

Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John parties, Alison queues, and Liz betrays.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

Letters of comment

Andrew January (email)

Chris Garcia (emails)

DC (Bluesky)

Ed Morland (Bluesky)

Henry Balen (Facebook)

Kevin Anderson (Bluesky)

Malcolm Hutchison (Facebook)

Steve (email)

Trish Matson (email)

We also heard from Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn, Ivan Sinha, Jake Casella Brookins, Kev McVeigh, Kin-Ming Looi, Mike Scott, Paul Weimer, Roseanna Pendlebury, Scott Edelman, Shi Lala, and Tammy Coxen

Octocon 2026: Cork and online

Octocon Programme

Bristolcon 2026

Left Handed Giant

The University of Liverpool’s Science Fiction Collection has been awarded Designated status by Arts Council England

Special Collections & Archives: Science Fiction Hub

Cameron Kunzelman in the Ancillary Review of Books on Joanna Russ and archives

“Archiving the Future: Preserving African Speculative Fiction” at LAcon V

Worldcon 2026: LAcon V

<plokta.con> 4

Picks

John: Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

Alison: The Bayeux Tapestry

Alison writes about queues

The copy held at Reading Museum

Liz: Foreigner by CJ Cherryh

Humble Bundle

Swimcast

Credits

Cover art: SKULK! by Sabrina L. Nelson, used under a CC BY-ND licence (original here)

Alt text: A photograph of various fans at LAcon V cosplaying foxes to varying degrees, including John wearing some fox ears and his wife España Sheriff wearing a fox mask. Above, orange text on a white background reads “Octothorpe 169” and below it reads “Foxes skulk at LAcon V”. For some reason, Adobe Photoshop is convinced I’ve used an AI-generated image, but given it’s a photograph and some text Adobe Photoshop can get in the sea.

Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is tired, Alison is listening to music, and Liz is catsitting.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Clowns (Chapter 1), Hugo Award statistics (Chapter 3)

Worldcon 2026: LAcon V

Hugo Awards

Results

Full Statistics

Administrator’s Report

Hugo Awards Ceremony on YouTube

Southside Symphony

Robert Jackson Bennett on the award speeches

Hugo, Girl!

Program guide

Worldcon Photos on Flickr

Worldcon 2028: Aussiecon 5

Picks

John:

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

The Recollections by Christopher Priest

Alison: Little, Big by John Crowley

Liz: Sublimation by Isabel J Kim

Credits

Cover art: “Love Is In the Air” by IHOP Photographer

Alt text: A photograph of John and Duncan MacGregor taken at an IHOP near the Hilton Anaheim. They are turned to look at each other in a booth. Their facial expressions are difficult to read, but hearts overlay the picture and so we surmise they are in love. Faces of bystanders are pixellated for privacy purposes. Words above the photo read “Octothorpe 168” and below read “Love is in the air at LAcon V”.

Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John, Alison, and Liz fix the Hugo Awards once and for all.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

Letters of comment

Alison: Mike Scott (Facebook)

“How is Inventing the Renaissance an SFF-Related Work?” by Ada Palmer

Liz: Tammy Coxen (Bluesky 1, Bluesky 2)

John: Heather Rose Jones (Facebook)

The Brand-New, Definitely-WSFS-Approved Hugo Award® Rosters!

Alison

Novel: Redefined to be 60,000+ words, awards to author and editor

Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Redefined to standalone works

Vibes: Best thing that seems like it should be genre but isn’t

New Writer: Redefined as a debut in the last three years, has never won a Hugo Award (!)

Fan: No previous winners, no professionals (with some caveats)

Original Artwork: Flat art and sculpture

John

Game or Interactive Work

Dramatic Presentation (Television): Nominating series, no standalone episodes

Novella: Refined to be up to 60,000 words, awards to author and editor

Related Work: Redefined to render conventions and things that exclusively happen at conventions ineligible

Fancast: It’s perfect just the way it is

Fan Artist: Defined “properly”

Liz

Dramatic Presentation (Moving Picture): Redefined to exclude TV series somehow

Publisher

Neon Hemlock

Haikasoru

Series: Redefined to let series of above a number of volumes on, even under the 240,000 word count (the Nghi Vo amendment)

[I SAID IT AND I MEANT IT—John]

Short Story/Novelette: Redefined to be shorter than 15,000 words, award to author only

Community Benefit: Works by the community which exist to benefit the community

Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom

AO3

Con or Bust

Video Essay: Non-fiction works in video format

Credits

Cover art: “Summer of Fungi” by España Sheriff

Alt text: An watercolour of three pink mushrooms growing on the trunk of a tree. The words “Octothorpe 167” appear at the top, and “summer of fungi” appear at the bottom. The listener is left to discern which mushroom represents which co-host.

Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)